Tom Cruise reveals title of next MI film

The latest film in the Mission: Impossible series will be called "Ghost Protocol", Hollywood star Tom Cruise revealed in Dubai on Thursday. "It's not gonna be MI 2, MI 3, MI 4, but it's gonna be Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol ... that will be the title of this film," Cruise told a news conference in the Gulf city-state. "One of the things that I always wanted with the franchise was for it to not have a number afterwards, because I haven't made sequels of films, and I never really thought of these films as sequels," Cruise said. "When you see each one of them, I think it's distinctive of each film-maker" who has worked on the series. "It's a series that I love doing," the American actor said. Paramount Pictures said the latest in the series that has grossed two billion dollars worldwide is currently shooting in Dubai, and would also be filmed in Moscow, Prague and Vancouver. Ghost Protocol will be in theatres in December 2011, Paramount said. "To be shooting here, it's a city I've always wanted to shoot in," Cruise said of Dubai. The film's director, Brad Bird, said he was pleased with filming in Dubai. "We love the fact that it's a big, new city ... It has the scale we look for in these kind of movies, because these are big movies. I think that it's almost like sets that you could never afford," said Bird. Executive producer Jeffrey Chernov, producer Bryan Burk, actor Jeremy Renner and actress Paula Patton were also at the news conference. The director, actors and producers were generally mum on how long shooting in the emirate would last, and where it would take place. But Burk did say that "we will be shooting in the building you are all sitting in right now," referring to Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower at 828 metres (2,717 feet), where the news conference was held. The Dubai government media office said last month that filming in the emirate would last at least three weeks. The existing three films in the series, released in 1996, 2000 and 2006, were inspired by a Mission: Impossible television series that first aired in the mid-1960s. The Dubai government has expressed hope that the filming would boost "Dubai's position as a favoured destination for international movie production" and help in establishing it "as a regional movie hub." Part of the 2005 film "Syriana" was shot in Dubai, while some of the 2007 film "The Kingdom" was shot in neighbouring Abu Dhabi. Dubai was hard-hit by the global financial crisis, which dried up available financing and brought its quickly growing property sector to a screeching halt, leaving it saddled with estimated debts of more than 100 billion dollars. There are signs of economic recovery in Dubai but its property sector continues to struggle.